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Ramallah Attracts a Cosmopolitan Crowd

The deck at Snowbar, where bonfires warm spectators.Credit
Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times

THE open-air deck pulsed with the rhythmic dancing of hundreds of young people, their hands raised toward the pine trees above them, needles sparkling yellow, red and blue in the disco lights. Couples watched from the sides by bonfires, huddling against the breezes billowing in from the valley below the club.

Amira Bernadette Dibdy, lead singer of CultureShoc, called out to the crowd in a mix of Arabic and English. The band was Snowbar’s live Thursday performance, a ritual that has made the club the hottest spot in Ramallah, the de facto capital of the West Bank. Though Yasser Arafat’s floodlit tomb loomed nearby, no one was talking about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict at Snowbar. They were too focused on the music.

The barrier walls here are certainly intimidating, and Ramallah doesn’t have the holy mystique of Bethlehem, but this city on the West Bank has become a destination for thousands of young North Americans, Europeans and offspring of the Palestinian elite. Some work for locally based non-governmental organizations or new businesses; others are visiting. Many of the hot spots are set in restored Ottoman buildings, streamlined Art Deco houses that date from the British mandate, or atop new high-rises. Some residents say the scene is an undiscovered challenge to what Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Amman, Jordan — each a few miles but a psychological world away — offer young people in the Middle East.

John Saadeh, 24, a Palestinian-American from San Francisco, moved to Ramallah last year after his parents opened a pizzeria near Ramallah’s historic Old City. He likes the night life, he said, because “everybody knows everybody out here. You’re like a celebrity. It’s very easy to meet people.”

Veronica Grant, a Jewish American from North Carolina, also 24, lives in Ramallah but commutes to graduate school at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. “I wanted to experience the Palestinian side, because I grew up with the Jewish side,” she said. “I find Ramallah one of the more liberal places in the Middle East, even more than Amman.”

Part of the appeal for these young travelers is the sophisticated culture embodied by night spots like Orjuwan, an Italian-Palestinian fusion restaurant and bar opened in November by three young members of a prominent West Bank family: Sari Sakakini; his brother, Salim; and sister, Katia. The restaurant has a couch-strewn patio, a wine bar under a vaulted Ottoman ceiling and a dining room with a view of the Old City.

“We wanted to make five-star gourmet Palestinian food,” Sari Sakakini said. “We wanted to tell people that, even occupied, we can make something above standard.” His Italian-trained chefs, Samer Jadoun and Iad Abu Khlaf, are particularly proud of their fusion risottos, like risotto al maklouba, made with eggplant, cauliflower and spices. Still, Mr. Sakakini is concerned about the fragility of a business where tensions with Israel can flare at any moment. “It’s not easy,” he said. “Something could happen tomorrow.”

That’s what worried the parents of Molly Toomey, a 23-year old Chicagoan who has lived in Ramallah for a year, working for a non-governmental organization. Ms. Toomey said her father was concerned because “his idea of this place was it was somewhere he would never willingly let his daughter go.” This changed, she said, when her mother visited, “and didn’t want to leave.”

Olivia Magnan, 25, from France, has lived in Ramallah off and on since 2002; she now works as a project manager for a local theater. At the bar at Café La Vie, where there’s dancing and live music on Thursday nights, she described Ramallah as “a mirror city of Tel Aviv,” considered the most secular of Israeli cities, adding, “it also became a bubble — the only place where most of the people are not from here.”

That sort of isolation can result in challenges for local businesses. “It is very difficult to get all these ingredients,” said Café La Vie’s chef, Dawoud Dawoud, though he buys locally as much as possible. Recent offerings included a pear and beet pie, flavored with Palestinian Cremisan wine, and a feta cheese and strawberry cake.

On the dimly lighted, leafy patio around the cafe, an Australian, Ben Sefton, 25, who was visiting friends, puffed on a Gauloise. He described a “forceful interrogation” from Israeli security, which controls access to the West Bank at checkpoints, but added, “I am looking forward to coming another time.”

Foreigners are welcome, though, at plenty of cheap, local places like the oddly named Stars and Bucks Cafe, which overlooks Al Manara Square, in the city center. Here, young couples kiss behind screened-in booths, out of site of families. At Shqereh restaurant, recommended by Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Authority prime minister, meat is roasted on a grill outside the front door and served in a cavernous, vaulted dining room, dating from 1889 and decorated with Palestinian textiles.

And nargila cafes abound, like Eiffel Café, a few blocks from Al Manara, where, on a recent night, Daniel McKenzie, a 22-year-old English teacher from Kingston, N.Y., was puffing on a water pipe. Fluent in Arabic, he often socializes with residents. “If you’re coming here as a tourist, you’re going to be welcomed into the cafes,” he said, adding that he usually runs into tourists on Fridays — mostly day-trippers coming from Jerusalem.

Local tourism officials hope visitors will spend more than just a few hours in Ramallah. Khouloud Daibes-Abu Dayyeh, the Palestinian minister of tourism, explained that the State Department’s travel warning is a major obstacle for attracting Americans. Still, she said, “over one million foreign tourists came in 2009” to the West Bank (Israel attracted 2.7 million). Most visitors must fly into Tel Aviv or Amman, but Ms. Daibes-Abu Dayyeh said a new airport was planned. “If we are serious” about tourism, she said, “an airport is one of the major needs.”

In addition to cafe culture and night life, Ramallah is home to music, dance and arts festivals. Among the largest is the Riwaq Biennale, which will take place for the fourth time in 2011. The festival’s director, Khalil Rabah, said every West Bank artist “wants to come to Ramallah,” creating an influx of liberal, talented young people in the city.

Hotel companies are taking notice. A 172-room branch of the Mövenpick chain is scheduled to open in September. During a recent tour of the hotel’s future pool area, Daniel Roche, a general manager for the chain, said he expected to see even women in bikinis there. “It’s not an issue” in Ramallah, he added. “People are so open-minded.”

IF YOU GO

To get to the West Bank, fly into Tel Aviv or Amman, Jordan. A recent Web search found round-trip El Al flights in June from New York to Tel Aviv starting at $1,460, and Royal Jordanian to Amman from $1,700.

To enter Ramallah from Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem, use private or shared cabs and buses through the Qalandia checkpoint. Bring your passport. Checkpoints are subject to periodic closings, especially at night. Israelis and Palestinians face checkpoint restrictions, but foreign passport holders do not.

From Amman, tourists use Allenby Bridge Crossing, but entry here can result in a “Palestinian Territories Only” passport stamp, which prevents entry to Israeli territory. North Americans with Arab names have sometimes been denied entry via Israeli or Jordanian borders.

Flying into Tel Aviv and treating the West Bank as a side trip from Israel, via Jerusalem, is often the better option.

Ramallah is safe, but can be poorly lighted at night, and some streets can feel deserted, with few English speakers. The street system can be confusing, and businesses rarely have numbered addresses.

Have your hotel or restaurant call taxis or ask an English-speaking resident. Taxis in town run about 10 to 15 shekels, or about $3 to $4 at 3.74 shekels to the dollar. A.T.M.’s are ubiquitous. Dollars are accepted in some hotels and restaurants.

The newest night spot is Beit Aneeseh (Sakakini Street; 972-2-295-2991). A sunken patio leads to the main house, with a sleek gray interior. Live music and D.J.’s on Thursdays.

WHERE TO STAY

Royal Court Suites (Jafa Street; 972-2-296-4040; www.rcshotel.com) is within walking distance of the Old City and many night spots. Standard rooms start at 270 shekels.

Nearby is Ankars Suites (Ghazi Street; 972-2-295-2602; www.ankarssuiteshotel.ps/about.htm). Its rooftop restaurant, Uptown-Sky Bar, has a view to the Mediterranean. Rooms start at $95.

The Mövenpick (Al-Nahda Square; 970-2-298-5888; www.moevenpick-ramallah.com) is scheduled to open in September. Rates are expected to start at $160.

Correction: June 13, 2010

An article last Sunday about the cafe culture and night life of Ramallah on the West Bank misstated the given name for the general manager of a Mövenpick hotel expected to open there in September. He is Daniel Roche, not David.

A version of this article appears in print on June 6, 2010, on page TR13 of the New York edition with the headline: Ramallah Attracts a Cosmopolitan Crowd. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe